We’re back other classic NCIS recap couch where this summer I’ve been recapping the favorite episodes of the cast members, past and present, as told to TV Guide in this article from 2012.

Cote de Pablo as Ziva and Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo in NCIS. (Photo: CBS)

This week we’re taking on one of Cote de Pablo’s favorite episodes, which I know is also a fan favorite as well. We’re going all the way back to season there where our dynamic duo of Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David go under cover and possibly get under the covers all at the same time. Setting up a classic “did they-didn’t they” storyline that has outlasted both of the characters’ run on the show. Yes, I’m talking about episode eight, Under Covers.

Let’s dive right in.

We open with Tony and Ziva in a very posh hotel room, he in a nice suit, she in a silky green dress. Tony is marveling over the 200-channel wide-screen TV when Ziva approaches, closes the cabinet door and let’s Tony know that watching television is the very last thing she has in mind. Right about this time, a good part of the viewership was on the edge of their couch, breath held, waiting to see if their long-held dream was about to come true, praying the scene before them wasn’t going to turn out to be an actual dream. They look deeply into each other’s eyes, then he lowers his head, and … shockingly, no phone rings, no plot twist steps in and interrupts them from doing what we all know they’re about to do. And oh boy, do they! The camera pans down, and we see that slinky green dress slide to the floor to pool around her high heels. Fade to black-and-white.

Aaaaand, then for possibly the first time in the history of the series thus far, we are not happy to hear our favorite theme song and see the amazing opening credits. Darn them!

But it’s too late. The shippers are already shipping and the fan fiction has gone straight to scorch. We’ve gotten what we wanted … Tony and Ziva. Locking lips. And hopefully a whole lot more!

Except … we know. Right? We always knew. We couldn’t be getting that lucky. And certainly neither are they. It’s episode eight, for goodness sake. Not the finale, an honor which this turn in their relationship would certainly demand. So … what is it? And why are they?

Well, we don’t scoot over to the Bull Pen of Orangey Goodness. Oh no. They’re going to tease us until we can’t be teased no more. We see clothing, his and hers, strewn on the floor around the bed, and our pathetic needy hopes are restored. Could they? Would they? The camera pans up and our eyebrows do the same as we spy our two are-they-aren’t-they lovers, looking an awful lot like, oh-yeah-they-did. There is a lot of bare skin, his and hers, with the two of them tangled under the covers. Tony is lying on top of Ziva, who looks into his eyes and whispers … “Do you think they bought it?”

Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo, Mark Harmon as Gibbs, Cote de Pablo as Ziva and Sean Murray as McGee in NCIS. (Photo: CBS)

Wait … what? Who is they? In short order we learn that they are, indeed, on a case, and this is all an act for the possible Peeping Toms or Tillys who are surveilling them right this very second. Tony wants Ziva to know that’s his knee … you know … there. Ziva doesn’t care what it is and tells Tony he can get off of her now, but Tony comments on how it’s only been 10 minutes and he’s got a reputation to uphold. So … maybe another 40 minutes, you know, to keep the reputation in good standing? Ziva is surprised by the 40-minute marathon man’s estimation of his prowess, and she immediately flips the tables, and Tony. Now she’s, um, on top of things. She sucker-punches him — knees him maybe? — all under the covers, of course, making him wheeze and ask what that was for. She smiles and says, “Because that was definitely not your knee.” HA. She covers that comment with a brief kiss. And her lips might be saying yes, but her eyes are definitely signaling that playtime is over.

While the sucker-punch was a buzzkill for Tony, our buzz wanes as we shift gears from the bedroom to the morgue and a bloody dead body. Geez, Show, not even a little cigarette puff? And I don’t even smoke. The bloody body is that of a woman, still in a body bag, partially unzipped. Ducky is in a tux (so smooth, Mr. Kuryakin!) and comments on how beautiful the woman is. Um … yeah, if you look past all of the blood and the part where she’s dead. Ew. Gibbs is there, too, and tells Ducky her name and that she’s responsible for murdering 25 people. Over on the other table is her husband, also quite the looker, if you, you know, overlook all the blood and him being quite dead as well. Turns out they are Canadian citizens, and also contract killers.

We learn they were killed in a car accident two days ago, and Ducky laments that he will be missing Giselle after waiting months. Gibbs apologizes about Ducky’s girlfriend. Ha. Before Ducky can correct Gibbs, in strolls Director Jenny Shepard, who tells Gibbs that Giselle is a ballet and teases him about needing to get out of his basement more often. This triggers a flashback of some European city and a much younger Gibbs and Jenny, flirting over dinner, with some hand-kissing going on. Back in the now, the two share a little smile, before Jenny turns to Ducky to discuss the newly arrived couple. Well, well, then. So, this is officially the Fifty Shades of NCIS episode? So much happening, and not nearly enough of it on screen where we can droo—uh, I mean, assess its backstory relevance and forward story advancement.

Jenny explains that the reason NCIS has the bodies is tied to the couple’s job description, and the fact that two U.S. passports were found on their bodies, in addition to reservations at the very hotel where the Navy will be holding its annual birthday ball. The shindig will be attended by all the Navy brass, Jenny included, as well as political bigwigs. Gibbs tells Ducky that he needs to find out as much as possible on the killer couple so NCIS knows why they were in D.C. We learn that Tony and Ziva are staying at the hotel taking Killer Couple’s place, in hopes of finding out who they came to kill. But, at the moment, they are flying blind. Ducky jokes that while he’s known to talk to his patients, they don’t exactly respond. An impossibly young-looking Gibbs tells Ducky to “listen harder” and exits the morgue.

Back at the hotel, Tony and Ziva are still taking the whole “undercover” thing quite literally. Now I’m the buzzkill, but it’s not like Killer Couple were there on their honeymoon. So … why all the time in bed? Couples do actually stay in hotels and go out and do other things. Is this the only way they could figure out how to communicate with each other so anyone possibly surveilling them wouldn’t hear what they’re saying? Because … yeah. Turn on a water faucet. Put some music on and slow-dance. This is a pretty over-the-top solution (pun maybe intended?). Titillating, for sure, and maybe a way to shut up the fans demanding a Tiva union by giving them a little heat without actually advancing the duo’s relationship? Also … if they’re “flying blind” and don’t know anything about the couple other than their occupations and that they’ve apparently got a hit job in D.C., why do they think anyone is surveilling them? What do they know that we don’t know? Does Gibbs know? So many questions.

Back in bed … Tony wants a back massage, Ziva says yes, then, as he moans in delight, Tony is foolish enough to tell her that his mother thought Ziva wasn’t good enough for her son. More pain for Tony. We also get the answer to the surveillance question. Not the why or the who, but that it is definitely happening. This was a few years ago, so all the agent who is watching them is getting is the hazy heat signature of the two bodies in the room, and the sound thanks to an apparent bug in the room. The sound she is getting is mostly the weird ’70s Muzak Tony and Ziva have been playing in the room this whole time. Surveillance Agent’s partner enters, toting what looks like a sniper rifle (no, I don’t need to know the make and model number, or the entire history of snipers, I’m good with “looks like a sniper rifle” because, you know, TV.). Surveillance Agent tells Sniper that the two have been having sex the whole time and appears quite bored. They continue to watch and listen as room service enters Tony and Ziva’s hotel room.

Cote de Pablo as Ziva and Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo in NCIS. (Photo: CBS)

Back in the hotel, the room service attendant is none other than McGee, who, under the guise of bringing them flowers and a cheese tray, sweeps the room for bugs, finds one and covers it with the cheese tray lid. He also notes the state of the bed linens and the fact that his fellow agents are dressed only in bathrobes and asks them, a bit curtly, if they need room service. Tony asks for a Red Bull, prompting McGee to say that will keep Tony up all night. Knowing looks are exchanged between our supposed lovebirds. Oh boy. With the bug covered, McGee says they are OK if they whisper. Then Gibbs pipes to the earbuds McGee also snuck in to Tony, and our Maybe Lovebirds learn that the flowers McGee brought in have a very clear video cam feed and Director Jenny is looking at, well, all of Tony, he of the loosely belted bathrobe. HA. Gibbs also brings up my point, that they’re married assassins, not vacaying at the Playboy Central.

The phone rings and Jenny directs Tony to have Ziva answer. She answers like the trained assassin she is both pretending to be and actually is trained to be and is told by the man on the other end that there is a cellphone in the Bible in the nightstand. Ziva turns the Bible so Tony, Gibbs and Jenny can see the phone. The man instructs her to keep it with her at all times and that she and Tony have dinner reservations in the hotel restaurant, promptly at nine. We get more maybe-fake-flirting as Ziva playfully tells Tony she’ll be dressing up for him that night. This prompts Surveillance Agent and Sniper to also get dressed for dinner. The contrast of bored SA and shaggy Sniper messily eating carryout pizza with our upscale Killer Couple couldn’t be made more plainly.

We finally skip back to HQ as Abby exits the elevator decked out in a poodle skirt, full ’50s regalia and bowling shoes. Turns out she was two frames away from a perfect game before being unceremoniously dragged back into work. She and Gibbs enter Ducky’s Digs, whereupon Gibbs puts a carton of the Killer Couple’s personal effects on a table and tells Abby to wire up so she can transmit whatever she finds directly to Tony and Ziva. Her mission is to dig up whatever she can that will help Tony and Ziva convincingly portray the real Killer Couple. As Abby turns, we see there is a skull and crossbones on the back of her pink satin ’50s jacket. Heh.

Gibbs is back to watching our Maybe Lovebirds as Tony looks around the room, affording Gibbs a view thanks to the camera in the oh-so-dapper horn rims he’s now wearing. He calls Ziva sweet cheeks, one of many such endearments he’s used thus far, prompting her to call him “my little hairy butt,” which does give him pause. Heh. Neither Tony nor Ziva recognize anyone in the crowded dining room, but the glasses allow Tony to take and transmit photos of every face so, back at HQ, Abby can run them through the system and see if they get any hits. Our surveilling couple enter and take their seats, but are, as yet, unknown to Tony and Ziva. Everyone has earbuds on the NCIS team, so Ducky revealing the contents of the deadly and dead duo’s stomachs kind of puts the damper on Tony’s enthusiasm for his shrimp cocktail. Ducky telling him that Mr. Deadly of the Killer Duo was a lefty, leaving him to awkwardly try to cut his steak left-handed. Ziva is highly amused and enjoying herself immensely.

She takes a call on her cell and turns it toward Tony, allowing Abby to catch the cell number. I guess they didn’t have “Unknown” back then? McGee is at the bar by the entrance to the restaurant from the hotel lobby where he can also surveil the bathroom entrance. So much going on. Abby is frantically running a search on the number, and finally they pin it down as a pay phone in the lobby of the same hotel. Ziva keeps their handler talking, joking about not getting paid enough and bypassing the fact that their handler seems to think they should have recognized their target, while McGee and Tony hustle toward the lobby as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Handler is gone by the time they reach the bank of phones. Fade to black-and-white.

Back in HQ, Abby tells Gibbs she has a photo of every man in the restaurant, all of them Navy or political bigwigs. One of them is the target. The problem is figuring out which one. In MTAC, Gibbs brings Jenny up to speed, saying they didn’t get a picture of Handler, and Tony and Ziva are continuing their stay at the hotel, seeing how things play out. She asks if they’re tracking Handler, and Gibbs is all, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?” And Jenny begs fatigue. He smiles, says how she never could pace herself. And we whirl back to yesteryear and their time together overseas, where they were working together and brief clips of the two of them in flagrante delicto make it very clear that there wasn’t any “maybe” to the part of whether they were truly lovebirds. Or at least very lusty sex partners. Back in MTAC, they share a knowing look, and she counters with, “Positano.” Gibbs takes immediate umbrage, reminding her that was a mere week after he took a bullet. Their shared look lingers a moment longer, then we return to business.

Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo and Cote de Pablo as Ziva in NCIS. (Photo: CBS)

Gibbs brings her up to speed on what they know and says they are matching the photos from the restaurant with the registered guests, putting names to faces. Jenny asks what if the target isn’t attending the ball but merely a guest at the hotel. Gibbs says that Ziva told Handler that she didn’t know their target would be surrounded by Marines, and Handler was not surprised. So Gibbs takes that to mean that the ball is why they are there. Gibbs tells Jenny that nothing else is going to happen that night, so she should grab a nap in her office. She says she’ll refill her coffee, then refill it again when the caffeine wears off, just like Gibbs does. He smiles and tells her she’s not him and she smiles that much more sweetly and calls him a chauvinist. He laughs, says maybe he is, then bids her good night and heads to the exit.

Jenny calls him back, says she’s torn between listening to her director side, which tells her to flood the hotel with FBI and take down the bad guys before they can do their damage. Her agent side says if she does that, the rest of the cell currently operating in D.C. would scatter and they’ll lose their chance to round them up, too. She knows Gibbs would let his agents stay the course but asks his opinion. He says if he were director, he’d let his team have another 24 hours, and if that didn’t wrap things up, then call in the FBI. She asks if he’d really do that. He smiles, says, “Nah,” then adds that that’s why he’ll never be director. HA. Oh, Jethro.

Our Maybe Lovebirds are snoring the night away as SA and Sniper watch on. SA enters their hotel room with coffee, while Sniper tells her he watched the earlier tape of Killer Couple and how hot it was. SA immediately shuts down any ideas he might be having, telling him if he needs anything else, call room service. She tells him they’ve seen their target now, so they won’t be there much longer. So … who is this Killer Duo’s target? Our Killer Couple? Or one of the military bigwigs?

Turns out the one sawing logs is Ziva. HA. Tony tries to quiet her and gets a gun put in his face, even as she’s not totally awake. She rolls back over, Tony mutters she’s a crazy chick, Ziva sleepily calls him her little hairy butt, and the two try to get comfy. All the while, Jenny is watching them via MTAC, sipping coffee and smiling. More fond memories?

The following morning McGee is back in room attendant regalia and shows Gibbs a package he found on his doorstep addressed to Ziva. Gibbs opens it to find a pair of sunglasses with two sets of lenses. McGee will find out what those are about when he brings them to Ziva. (Who used McGee as her “mule” because she knew he wouldn’t open the package himself.) McGee watches them on screen at HQ and tries to wake Tony to no avail. Turns out Ziva is awake and has been since five, complaining of his snoring. She offers to do the job for McGee. She pours a little water on the side of his head and yep, he’s awake!

In Ducky’s Digs, he’s training Palmer in making neat stitches (which I did not need to see). He’s annoyed that he couldn’t reach Palmer to get him to come in earlier. Enter Gibbs. Ducky runs down the rather useless info he was able to glean from the post-mortems, then says he found a small symbol tattooed on the inside of each of the Killer Couple’s ring fingers. An infinity symbol. He wants to review his notes again, in case he missed anything else.

Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo and Cote de Pablo as Ziva in NCIS. (Photo: CBS)

Meanwhile, Ziva and Tony are less enamored of each other after a night spent listening to each other snore. Ziva puts on her new sunglasses, and we learn that they can detect a wide range of light sensors, even from long distance. She spies the room in the hotel across the street from which they are being surveilled. (I am still unclear why they ever assumed they were being watched. Supposedly this couple was hired to come kill someone. Why would they think someone was watching them? Someone other than their handler, anyway?)

Ziva reports her findings to HQ, and Gibbs says they’ll need a distraction to keep SA and Sniper preoccupied.

We shift to SA and Sniper watching via a pair of heat-sensor binoculars. Sniper wonders how long they can keep it up, and we see a blurry heat sensor image of a man on top of a woman, appearing to be having sex with her. The sounds being made would seem to cement that supposition. The truth is, as we swing over to Tony and Ziva, he’s been doing push-ups over her for what feels like hours while she fake-moans. Tony complains about the push-ups while Ziva all but snarls as she counts his reps.

Meanwhile, Gibbs and McGee are closing in on the hotel room across the street, guns drawn. Gibbs tells Tony to give it the “big finish,” causing Sniper to tell his partner they could make a fortune putting those tapes on the Internet. She reminds him of the couple’s day jobs and how she wouldn’t recommend it, just as Gibbs and McGee bust into the room. Everyone has guns drawn and they’re all barking out their creds. Gibbs and McGee being NCIS. And SA and Sniper, as we can now see from the backs of their jackets … FBI. Ruh roh. Fade to black-and-white.

The FBI agents are at HQ now, marveling over how his NCIS co-workers were willing to go all the way to sell their cover story. McGee shrugs it off as them playacting. SA and Sniper are all, yeah … no, definitely not playacting. McGee watches the two on screen, struggling to come to grips with what might have happened.

Over at HQ, Jenny is worried about having ticked off the FBI after inadvertently sabotaging their operation, until Gibbs reminds her that the FBI also knew there was a planned hit on a Navy function and didn’t exactly come and read in NCIS, despite that being their jurisdiction. She is annoyed that she didn’t think of that, and Gibbs tells her she really needs to get some sleep, that he’ll take care of smoothing over the politics. She laughs at that idea and the two cute-banter some more, then Gibbs goes downstairs just as Fornell (YAY!) storms in, all fire and fury. Gibbs and Fornell go head to head with such heat it looks like one of those heads is about to get ripped off momentarily and it’s a toss-up on which one. Gibbs barks at Fornell to take the conversation elsewhere and they storm into the elevator, leaving their collective agents behind them, worried about what is going to happen.

Of course, as soon as the elevator doors slide closed, Gibbs hits the stop button and Fornell offers him some gum. HA. Fornell says how they both really managed to screw things up this time and they set about figuring out how to fix it without their respective directors going at each other directly. I say it every time, and I mean it more each time, but I love these two. They agree in short order that NCIS will take 24 hours to try and pin down the target and who Handler is, then the FBI goes in and makes the collar. Everybody is happy. Gibbs starts the elevator again while Fornell ponders why everyone thinks the two of them are bastards. (His word.) Gibbs laughs, says, “Because they know us?” HA. Then the elevator doors open, and their expressions go instantly hard and angry as they storm out. Love, and more love.

Michael Bellisario as Chip and Pauley Perrette as Abby in NCIS. (Photo: CBS)

In Abby Lab we get another blast from the past with Abby’s intern Chip! But that’s a whole ’nother story. The two are working their way through all the photos from the restaurant. Abby discovers that Mrs. of the Killer Couple was pregnant when she died and relays this info to Gibbs. Over at the hotel, SA is dressed up as a maid while she debugs Tony and Ziva’s room. Tony watches her, and SA hits on him. Tony realizes she was the one who’d been watching him and Ziva all weekend. She asks him out for drinks, and he readily agrees, just as Ziva walks out of the bathroom and announces she’s pregnant. HA! SA calls off their date and leaves before anyone can explain. Ziva seemed oblivious to what she interrupted, but after SA leaves she casually tells Tony she’s wasn’t his type anyway. Heh.

They get a call from Handler, who blocked the number this time. Tony answers. Handler talks while he strolls down the city street, telling Tony he has permission to discuss a price adjustment given the increased risk, but they will need to do that face-to-face. He tells Tony to go down to the lobby in one hour and a black Lincoln will be waiting by the curb. Handler hangs up and tosses the phone in the trash. Gibbs and Fornell are in MTAC, listening to every word. Fornell says he has teams in place to follow the Lincoln, and Gibbs tells Tony and Ziva to take the meeting.

Tony wonders if Mrs. Killer Couple knew she was pregnant and why would she take the contract hit and endanger her child? Ziva feels certain Mrs. KC knew and says that maybe they needed the money. Kids are expensive. Ziva, who has been cleaning her gun the whole time, tells Tony that they may be walking into a trap. He asks if she’s nervous. She smiles and says no, she’s excited.

All the teams are in place, watching outside the hotel in person and via screen in MTAC as Tony and Ziva head down in the elevator with a hotel staff member on board. Jenny enters MTAC and says this meeting reminds her of one of their missions. Gibbs reminds her that she took a bullet in the thigh on that mission, and she nods, says she has the same bad feeling about this one. Gibbs transmits orders to Tony and Ziva not to take any chances. Anything feels off, they abort.

Lincoln pulls up, and man and woman get out, Lincoln leaves. Wrong Lincoln. Meanwhile, Chip finally gets a hit. He decided to run facial rec on all the hotel staff, too, and finds one with a murder rap. And yep, same waiter who is in the elevator with Ziva and Tony. We see Killer Waiter pull a gun with a silencer on it and aim it at the backs of Tony’s and Ziva’s heads … and we fade to black-and-white.

The elevator door opens, and Killer Waiter tells them they’ll be getting off here. The doors open to reveal Handler and another guy, who tells them they’ll be meeting there on the third floor. Ziva handles it in stride, playing the annoyed Mrs. Killer, and how they could have come down to the third floor without an armed escort, thankyouverymuch. Handler is unperturbed. In fact, he calmly admires Ziva for getting their floor and room number vocalized for her “friends” who are listening. Too bad Killer Waiter has a signal jammer, so no one can hear them. Ruh roh. Blown cover. Handler tells his cohort to escort the pair to the designated room, and if either of them resist, “Shoot the woman.” He seems nice.

Back at MTAC, when Ziva and Tony never make it to the lobby and McGee doesn’t find them in their room, it doesn’t take long for Gibbs, Jenny and Fornell to put things together. There are too many rooms to go through between their floor and the lobby. Jenny tells them they will wait until Ziva contacts them. That to do anything else would jeopardize their cover. Fornell asks what happens if their cover is already blown. Jenny says nothing, but we all think the same thing: Well, then it’s too late anyway.

At the hotel, Killer Waiter smashes Tony’s and Ziva’s earwigs, while Handler tells them that no one tries to leave the mercenary-for-hire business. Ah, so I’m guessing they tried to quit when Mrs. Killer found out she was pregnant. Also, Handler still thinks they are the real Killer Couple. Tony and Ziva are tied to chairs, their backs to each other. Tony smart-mouths Handler and earns a punch to the face for that.

Cote de Pablo as Ziva and Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo in NCIS. (Photo: CBS)

Handler asks where the disc is. Tony asks what disc and earns another punch. Ziva takes up the conversation with Handler, playing it off like she wants to sell him the disc, asking him what it’s worth to him. Each comment earns Tony another punch to the face. Handler counters by asking Ziva how much it’s worth to her, as Tony continues to take a beating.

Back at HQ, Abby runs through all the photos they took in the restaurant, and she spies Handler through the window in the door to the kitchen. She ran him through the system, got his name, and the info that he is a contract assassin wanted in five countries. Which begs the question, why does a killer hire other killers to do a hit for him?

Back at the hotel, Handler tells Ziva that out of professional courtesy, he’s had his cohort go easy on a very bloodied Tony. Ziva tells Handler to let Tony go and she’ll tell him where the disc is. Killer Waiter comes over with a silver case containing some very nasty blades inside. Handler takes one and tells Ziva she will tell him either way. Handler, Cohort and Killer Waiter leave the room after telling the two to consider their options. Tony tells Ziva to tell Handler the disc is in their room in a place only she can show him. McGee will likely be there, and that would be their best hope. Except, as Ziva points out, that as soon as she leaves, they will probably kill Tony. He tells her he didn’t say it was a perfect plan.

We skip over to Ducky’s Digs, where he has discovered a tiny gold heart-shaped piece embedded in Mrs. Killer Couple’s eye. One that only someone would see if they were staring intimately into her eyes, like a lover. I’m guessing that’s the disc? Ducky doesn’t know what it is and tells Palmer to take it to Abby, who confirms that there is a tiny disc embedded in the heart containing two files. One has all the info on the Killer Couple, including the house they purchased, and essentially all the plans they made for their post-killer life. The other file has all the info on Killer Couple’s clients. That is what Handler wants. Gibbs and Fornell finally realize that Killer Couple weren’t hired to do a hit, they were hired because they are the hit.

Mark Harmon as Gibbs and Lauren Holly as Jenny in NCIS. (Photo: CBS)

In the room, Handler has the blade and Tony puts his plan into motion, even knowing they will likely kill him. It’s their only chance. Handler has Ziva untied, but calls Killer Waiter to go clear their hotel room before they head up. Ruh roh. Heads up, McGee! Waiter enters, gun with silencer drawn and spies McGee looking out the window. As Handler and Ziva go to leave their room, he tells her she got greedy. She tells him what she got was pregnant. Surprisingly, Handler is charmed by this news and seems sincere in congratulating her. He asks if it’s a boy or a girl, and she says they want to be surprised. He smiles, says that’s the best way, and clearly you can see he is a father. Tony clues in to this and says how she has morning sickness every single day, one commiserating father to another. They chat back and forth on whether Handler plans to kill them and he admits he hasn’t decided yet, but mentions again how contract killers can’t just walk away from the job. If they could, he’d be at his daughter’s fifth birthday party. He tells Ziva to give him the disc and they’ll see, play it by ear. Handler tells cohort that if he’s not back in five minutes, to kill Tony. So, not all that undecided, then. As soon as Handler leaves, Cohort gets the knife anyway. He smiles and tells Tony that was just to get her to help them, a little white lie. Ruh roh.

Ziva enters her hotel room and sees McGee sprawled on the floor. She runs to him, and Handler says he hopes she wasn’t counting on her backup. She smiles and stands, telling Handler that wasn’t her backup. Handler turns, and his face runs right into Gibbs’ swinging fist. McGee gets up as Ziva tells them the floor and room number where Tony is being held. Fornell exits the bathroom where we see Killer Waiter is, all tied up. He orders his team to descend on Tony’s room as they all head out.

Tony is delaying things by talking to Cohort, buying as much time as possible, talking about his impending fatherhood, having a little DiNozzo running around. Oops? Nope! When Cohort questions the name, Tony is all, “Yeah, that’s my full name. Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.” Right before he gets up and swings his chair around, taking Cohort down by a hit to the side of the knee. Just in time for our team to come racing in to save him. Only to find Tony, still tied to a chair, straddled over Cohort while he kicks him around the head a bit, asking how that feels. Ziva runs over to him and tells him to stop. Tony, all amped up from almost dying, looks at Gibbs and asks for a divorce. Ziva merely shrugs. HA.

Back at HQ, Tony has returned from the emergency room and everyone is clucking over him, including Ducky, who is once again wearing a tux. After much banter, it’s decided that McGee will drive Tony home, though Ziva offered. Ziva asks why McGee, and Abby says, “Because he wants to live?” HA. Enter Gibbs, who asks Ducky if he is going to the ballet after all, and he says no and shows off his chest full of military honors. He says he has been asked to escort Jenny to the Navy Ball. Enter Jenny, who descends the stairs, all regal in her gown and a whole lot of cleavage on display. She and Gibbs share a smile as she takes Ducky’s arm, and they head out. The rest of the team helps Tony to the elevator, then Abby ducks back for a second and wishes Gibbs a happy birthday. Aww. He thanks her and is finally alone at his desk. He pulls out a flask that has a bullet in it. On it are the engraved names of his wife and daughter. “I miss you guys,” he says, running his fingers over the engraving. Then he unscrews the cap and says, “Semper Fi.” Fade to black-and-white.

Now, THAT is the NCIS I remember. Ahh. Truly one of the classic episodes of all 15 seasons.

What is your favorite episode? Drop me a line to donna@donnakauffman.com and let me know. I’ll draw a few titles from the influx of mail, and those will be our classic recaps for what remains of our summertime fun.

We also have a bit of other business to finish up. I put a copy of my book, Bluestone & Vine, and a lovely canvas tote bag to carry it in up for grabs the last time we met. Thanks so much for your enthusiastic entries. Our winner this week is Kate Sparks! Kate, e-mail me at donna@donnakauffman.com with your address and I’ll get your goodies in the mail to you!

Let’s do that same giveaway again this time around. Want in? Drop me an e-mail to donna@donnakauffman.com with “Bluestone & Vine? Pick me!” in the subject line and you’re in!

I’ll announce the winner in the next classic recap column in two weeks. I can’t wait to hear what episodes you’re dying to get the recap treatment. Tune in on Aug. 15 to find out!

Until then …

Donna Kauffman is the USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over 70 novels, translated and sold in more than 26 countries around the world. Born into the maelstrom of Washington, D.C., politics, she now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where she is surrounded by a completely different kind of wildlife. In addition to her NCIS recaps for USA TODAY’s Happy Ever After blog, she is also a DIYer, a baker, a gardener and a volunteer transporter for the Wildlife Center of Virginia and Rockfish Sanctuary. She loves to hear from readers (and NCIS viewers!). You can drop her a line to donna@donnakauffman.com. For more info about her latest releases, please visit her online at www.DonnaKauffman.com.